West Port Experiment

Last week, I had a Puritan Seminary student join me (Puritan alum, Class of 2005), for some intensive urban outreach in central Rhode Island. Anderson Oliveira, a Brazilian Presbyterian student, had sat in on my Reformed Parish Mission presentation in Grand Rapids last February and expressed interest in interning. So he flew out last Wednesday, and we logged many hours together over several days bringing the Gospel of the Kingdom to my Warwick and especially South Providence parishes. It was a joy to have him tag along and participate.

He started out helping me in the mundane task of printing and folding Gospel leaflets. Not glamorous, but ever-so-necessary. The particular one we used for most of the visits included the prophecy of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. We often used this text as a launchpad – as Phillip of old – to announce to sinners the vicarious Remedy. Each doorstep talk was a doorway to heaven, opened on earth. But alas! Though heaven’s door is set open to sinners, the Spirit of God must move them to take that vital step. And so Anderson and I frequently stopped to plead with the Lord, that He might send forth His irresistible Wind, who blows where He wills.

One fellow we visited was a Haitian. I had met his family before, but not him. But what a personable chap! “John” is a very hard working, honest, and large-hearted fellow. While well into retirement age, he still worked, setting a very positive example for all around him. But his grasp of grace? That was iffy at best. While he claimed he had Jesus “in his heart,” he had fallen away from church attendance during Covid. We urged him to recall that Jesus in fact built His Church, and that it is the “house of God” where the means of grace are made available to sinners. He cannot neglect this institution without jeopardizing his soul.

I was gratified to introduce Anderson to some of my ‘receptive regulars.’ Thankfully, my Irish friend “Sean” was at home, and we had a very good visit. As usual, very amusing. But our business is of the utmost seriousness, and Sean knows that I’m on an errand for Heaven. Starting from Isaiah 53, we spoke about the Gospel promise as a pregnant woman in the Old Testament, and that the New Testament is the brith, the revelation of that ancient, blessed plan to save us from sin and misery. I challenged him about his carelessness for his soul, and reiterated that we would love to have him back to church.

In addition to Sean, we had a couple of really good visits with folks in my Warwick parish, near my own home. I had met “Laura,” a 60-something white lady, back in 2016. At that time, I had asked how I could pray for her and her husband. She told me then that her adult daughter had been sober for about three months and was hoping, of course, that she would never return to drunkenness. But how tragic it was that, when I asked her last week how her daughter was faring, she confided that she had died, losing the battle to substance abuse. It was hard to know exactly how to respond at the moment. But we told her that while the Bible gives no ‘easy’ answers to the tragedies of this life, it does it fact give the Answer, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the pre-eminent Sufferer, and who tasted death for every man. We prayed with her and her family, and she seemed very appreciative. Please pray that the Lord would take her to the cross and the empty grave.

Anderson was extremely helpful with Spanish, which is markedly better than mine. So many of the households in my South Providence parish have Spanish-speakers, mostly from the Dominican Republic. While I usually did most of the talking, I gladly took a step back to listen in as he spoke freely in Spanish. What an encouragement — and a practical blessing.

While I have little to any Portuguese-speakers in my parishes, Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts have buckets of them – from Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, and the Azores. I decided that we’d go get some Brazilian food, and we were delighted with the double treat of excellent food and meeting the proprietors, who were clearly devout, Bible-believing Christians. We had the opportunity to share something of the Reformed faith, planting some seeds. My son, Gabriel, patronized the place the next day, which referral especially pleased them. And I also took Anderson to a community in East Providence and let him take the lead. House after house after house spoke Portuguese (I just smiled and nodded!). If Anderson ever returns, he just may have to come with me again to that new little parish.

Oh, and as Anderson is a fellow psalm-singer – using the 1650 no less! – we enjoyed psalmody en route. And it was a delight to have him join us in the house of God on the Sabbath. Not surprisingly, our folks really took to him.

We also visited with saints. What a joy it was to stop by the house of an old friend, a Congolese pastor and his family, who attended our church for some time years back through the outreach. Anderson and I had come to this neighborhood to give the Gospel, as freely as we had received it. But here, we gave and received, and so were refreshed and renewed by Christian fellowship. A little oasis, for sure; and all the more special as these believers reflected to us the manifold diversity of the Kingdom, consisting of every tribe, tongue, and nation. When Anderson joined me, just how many languages could have been spoken under that roof? Anderson added Portuguese to my English and Spanish, while Sebirayi brought along Swahili, French, and at least one other tribal African tongue. A little piece of Pentecost!

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Special thanks to those of you who donated to RPM to make this internship possible. Your considerate gifts enabled him to come and join us at no cost to him or us. Would you like to consider donating and so making it possible for other helpers to come for internships or mission trips? Consider a contribution here. Or, unfamiliar with RPM? Learn more here.

And would you like to come and visit? “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”